Tuesday, September 26, 2006

not to be missed

i read two stories today that simply cannot go unmentioned.as c+c music factory proclaimed in the early 90's (and yes, i listened to them. i was nine, bitches), these are the things that make you go hmmm....

.. language="JavaScript"> ..>JULIE JOHNSONTHE DEVIL'S APT. BROKER

By ERIN CALABRESESeptember 25, 2006 -- A Manhattan millionaire had a devil of a time selling his Upper West Side apartment after his real-estate broker trashed it in a "satanic" frenzy, court papers claim.

Daniel Farash said he returned home to his three-bedroom apartment on West 79th Street after a weekend away to discover many of his mattresses had been urinated on, his belongings broken and laid out in strange patterns - and his broker naked and chanting in a closet.

"I was ambushed. She came out of that closet like a lunatic. She was naked holding my mother's vase in one hand and a towel in another and screaming all this nonsense," Farash, 44, told The Post.

"Portions of my house were turned into . . . a satanic temple . . . like some sort of witchcraft. I was in shock. You're talking about your home - you're talking about your real-estate broker."

Farash is now suing Warburg Realty, charging the incident resulted in him selling his $1.4 million apartment for $500,000 less than market value. He also says it's left him suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

The broker was identified in court papers by her company as former real-estate agent Julie A. Johnson.

According to a deposition, the firm's president, Fred Peters, admitted the company knew she was mentally unstable, having discussed her anxiety and stress issues with one of her therapists. But Peters insists the company is not responsible for the damages.

Peters and the company attorney did not return calls for comment.

Farash says that in February 2003, after he'd signed up with Warburg to sell his home at 310 W. 79th, he went away for the weekend while Johnson held an open house.

He later learned it hadn't gone very well because the broker was making "bizarre, inappropriate and irrational statements" to potential customers, court papers say.

When he returned home the next night, he said he was ambushed by the naked Johnson, who'd trashed the apartment - defecating in his closet, breaking some of his belongings, and arranging some in "satanic" configurations to look like a woman giving birth.

Farash called police, who took Johnson away for psychiatric observation, the court papers say. He later learned that earlier that night, she'd run through common areas of the building naked and screaming, the papers say.

Farash said he was underwhelmed by Peters' response to the incident and was later dropped by the company.

He said he's speaking out now because Warburg has been uncooperative in the court case, claiming they're not responsible for Johnson's actions.

Farash says he doesn't blame the real-estate agent for the incident, contending Peters should not have allowed her to work on his case because the company knew she was troubled.

CINCINNATI (Reuters) - A car commercial proclaiming a jihad on the U.S. auto market and offering "Fatwa Fridays" with free swords for the kids is offensive and should not be aired, Muslim leaders said on Sunday.

The radio advertisement for the Dennis Mitsubishi car dealership in Columbus, Ohio, has "a whole jihad theme," said Adnan Mirza, director of the Columbus office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

"They are planning on launching a jihad on the automotive market and their representatives would be wearing burqas ... ," Mirza said. "They mentioned the pope in there and also about giving rubber swords out to the kiddies -- really just reprehensible-type comments."

Details of the radio ad, which has not yet been broadcast, have been reported in the local media, but officials at the dealership declined to comment about the content of the radio spot.

Two employees at the dealership said they had been deluged with calls about the commercial.

"The ad has never been released, it is not out for public listening," said one employee who declined to give his name. He would not say whether the dealership had changed its mind about airing the commercial.

Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Motors Corp. could not immediately be reached for comment.

Mirza said several local radio stations had already rejected the ad and he hoped the controversy would convince the dealership to rethink its sales strategy.

He also said the Council on American-Islamic Relations would likely contact the dealer to "offer some kind of cultural or sensitivity awareness training."